Doh! Apple engineer lost iPhone prototype whilst drinking

Gizmodo has posted an article on how its prototype iPhone came to be out in the wild. And it’s probably not good news for at least one Apple engineer.

Apparently Gray Powell, who has been working on the iPhone baseband software, lost the phone at Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City, Califoria – not far from Apple’s Cupertino campus. He is said to have left it on a bar stool before going home. This was around a month ago. (Interestingly, Gray Powell is still an Apple employee).

So what happened in the meantime? An un-named stranger picked up the phone and found Gray Powell’s facebook account open in one of the applications. He planned to return it the next morning, but found it had been remote wiped when he woke up. The story is that he tried to ring Apple to let them know the phone was safe and sound, but his calls were never returned.

But we still don’t know how Gizmodo got their hands on the prototype device. “Weeks later, Gizmodo got it,” was the site’s only explanation.